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CLASSICAL MUSIC AND DANCE GUIDE

Published: December 10, 1999

Correction Appended

Here is a selective listing by critics of The Times of new or noteworthy opera, classical music and dance events this weekend in the New York metropolitan region.

Classical Music

ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN. For some years the Marilyn Horne Foundation has been doing good work on behalf of young singers by presenting them in solo recitals across the country. Every selected artist gets a recital in New York, and this weekend the soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has her turn. The 25-year-old Canadian of Armenian descent, who recently created the role of Catherine in William Bolcom's opera ''A View from the Bridge,'' will present a recital at the Kosciuszko Foundation with the pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson. The program includes works by Vivaldi, Barber, De Falla, Hovhaness and Weill. The Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th Street, Manhattan; Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 (free for students). Call: (212) 734-2130 (Tommasini).

''CHORAL MASTERWORKS.'' This program would be mightily attractive if only for its choral and orchestral aspects, as Jane Glover conducts the Concert Chorale of New York and the Greenleaf Chamber Orchestra in Bach's ''Magnificat,'' Beethoven's ''Choral Fantasy'' and Haydn's ''Theresienmesse.'' But the pianist in the Beethoven, Garrick Ohlsson, comes as a substantial bonus. The vocal soloists -- Dana Hanchard, Phyllis Pancella, Steven Tharp and Stephen Morscheck -- are also accomplished. Tonight at 8, Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, Purchase, N.Y., (914) 251-6200. Tickets: $35 and $40; discounts for students and the elderly. Limited ticket availability. (Oestreich).

YAKOV KASMAN. At the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, this Russian pianist gave a series of fiery, individual performances that won him the competition's Silver Medal. He also won the top prize at the Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 1992 and the International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg in 1995. For his New York debut recital, he is playing Prokofiev's Sonata No. 8, Medtner's Sonata in G minor, Schumann's ''Waldszenen'' and Stravinsky's Three Movements from ''Petrushka.'' Tomorrow night at 8, 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street. (212) 996-1100. Tickets: $20 (Kozinn).

''MASS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY.'' Here, in excerpts, is a piece that goes even beyond Leonard Bernstein's ''Mass'' in its voracious embrace, incorporating elements of non-Christian religions to try to make a universal statement, as much political and ecological as religious. One might fear grandiosity if the composer were anyone but Carman Moore, a pragmatic, soft-spoken musician with a lively humor who has toiled quietly over the years, following his own adventurous star. It seems at least worth a try. Sunday at 3 p.m., Winter Garden, World Financial Center, West Street, south of Vesey Street, (212) 945-0505. Admission: free (Oestreich).

''MESSIAH.'' No question, it sounds bizarre, even purposefully lunatic: Handel's oratorio staged more or less as an opera and set in Bedlam (the notorious Bethlehem Royal Hospital in London). But no one who saw Millennial Arts Productions' staging of Handel's ''Esther'' two years ago is likely to dismiss the company's effort here out of hand. That production proved both illuminating and infuriating and afforded a fine forum for the young countertenor Bejun Mehta. Here, a rotating cast of singers includes Rachel Rosales and Mark Bleeke. Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, and Sunday at 5 p.m., John Jay College Theater, 899 10th Avenue, at 59th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. Tickets: $45 (Oestreich).

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC. In its Completely Copland Festival, the New York Philharmonic has been offering a comprehensive survey of Copland's music, with rarely heard scores played alongside old favorites and chamber concerts augmenting the orchestral programs. The young conductor Andrew Litton, who directs the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, leads the closing program, which includes the Symphony No. 1; the ''Old American Songs,'' with Marilyn Horne as the soloist; and the Symphony No. 3. A preconcert recital tonight includes performances of the Sextet, the Threnodies, Nos. 1 and 2, the Duo and Vocalise, for flute and piano, as well as a talk by the musicologist H. Wiley Hitchcock. Before tomorrow's concert there is a talk by Howard Pollack, a biographer of Copland, and performances of works for violin, piano and string quartet. Tonight and tomorrow at 8; the preconcert events are at 6:45. Avery Fisher Hall, (212) 721-6500. Tickets: $26 to $92 (Kozinn).

NEW YORK YOUTH SYMPHONY. This impressive orchestra of young musicians is playing better than ever under its current conductor, the energetic Mischa Santora. The orchestra's first concert of the new season on Sunday at Carnegie Hall includes Mozart's ''Exultate, Jubilate'' and selected Mozart arias with the soprano Benita Valente, Elgar's ''Enigma'' Variations and the premiere of a work by David Ludwig, ''Aries.'' The Youth Symphony plays a new work by a young composer on every program. No orchestra in the country equals that kind of commitment to new music. Carnegie Hall, Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $7 to $40. (212) 247-7800 (Tommasini).

Correction: December 11, 1999, Saturday A listing in the Classical Music and Dance Guide of Weekend yesterday for Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' at the Metropolitan Opera this weekend misstated the date. It is tonight at 7; it was not last night.